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Saturday, January 14, 2017

The Gospels do not contain episodes of Christ Jesus at his ages approximately between 12 and 30.

For example:

Age 12 Jesus visits the Temple in Jerusalem
Age 12 - 30 Jesus works as a carpenter in Nazareth

Timeline of Jesus aged 30
Jesus is baptised in the River Jordan in Judea by John the Baptist
Jesus in the Wilderness - Judea
Jesus hails Andrew, Simon, Philip, And Nathaniel - Bethabara
Miracle of turning the water into wine and drives the moneymakers from the temple - Cana. Jerusalem
Nighttime visit Of Nicodemusâ€”Christ enlightens him - Jerusalem.
Jesus and the Woman of Samaria - Samaria: Sychar
Miracle at Cana in Galilee
Pool of Bethesda - Jerusalem
Jesus Reads in the Nazareth Synagogue - Nazareth. Capernaum

However, it is unlikely that Jesus just lived in Nazareth as a carpenter. He must have learnt Judaism somewhere. He must have learnt how to read and write somewhere.

Especially, the Gospels depicted a scene where Jesus at 12 discussing religious matters with priests in the temple of Jerusalem and His parents, when finding Him talking with religious leaders, getting surprised. And then, the Gospels do not provide any episodes about young Jesus till He appeared on the River Jordan at an age about 30.

So, if Jesus had been living with His parents in Nazareth till He became 30 years old, there must have been many witnesses of His deeds in this period of time. At least His brothers must have witnessed His deeds and later told His disciples and writers of the Gospels about many and various episodes of young Jesus in Nazareth. But the Gospels keep silence on young Jesus in this period of time. So, it is thought naturally that there were no witnesses of young Jesus in this period. It means that Jesus was not near His family and not in Nazareth. But where was He?

Although Jesus could discuss religious matters with priests in the temple of Jerusalem at 12 years old, He looked like having full and detailed knowledge about the holy books of Judaism or the Old Testament when He started His mission at 30. He must have extensively learnt Judaism somewhere like a college or a theological school. And there was one place suitable for this purpose: Qumran caves.

Today Qumran is well known for discovery of the Dead Seas Scrolls after WWII.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, in the narrow sense of Qumran Caves Scrolls,[notes 1] are a collection of some 981 different texts discovered between 1946 and 1956 in eleven caves (Qumran Caves) in the immediate vicinity of the Hellenistic-period Jewish settlement at Khirbet Qumran in the eastern Judaean Desert, the modern West Bank. The caves are located about two kilometres (1.2 miles) inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name.[3] The consensus is that the Qumran Caves Scrolls date from the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls

As proven by the discovery of the Dead Seas Scrolls, there were many holy books of Judaism in Qumran. And, some scrolls are believed to have been written there. So, Qumran was the best place for young Jesus to exhaustively learn traditions of Judaism in addition to how to read and write.

It is also a miracle that the so many Dead Sea Scrolls have been kept and preserved there for 2000 years, since it is believed that Roman troops also occupied Qumran and dispelled Israelits living and practicing a school of Judaism there during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE). It is as if power of Christ Jesus who had once lived and studied there allowed those scrolls to be preserved for 2000 years. It is indeed a miracle that Qumran was discovered by the world 2000 years after the era of Christ Jesus. It is as if God had given those scrolls to the mankind as His present to celebrate the 20th century.

In summary, we have to assume that young Jesus between 13 to 30 years old was living, studying, and working in Qumran.

That is why His brothers and His friends living in Nazareth in this period could not offer any episodes and material about young Jesus to Gospel writers, since they did not know about living status and conditions of young Jesus in Qumran. That is why there are no episodes of young Jesus from 13 to 30 years old mentioned in the Gospels.

Christ Jesus was in Qumran before his appearance on the River Jordan; this is a very natural and reasonable conclusion. It means that Christ Jesus was close to the Essenes.

A little later, Josephus gave a detailed account of the Essenes in The Jewish War (c. 75 CE), with a shorter description in Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94 CE) and The Life of Flavius Josephus (c. 97 CE). Claiming first hand knowledge, he lists the Essenoi as one of the three sects of Jewish philosophy[7] alongside the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He relates the same information concerning piety, celibacy, the absence of personal property and of money, the belief in communality, and commitment to a strict observance of Sabbath. He further adds that the Essenes ritually immersed in water every morning, ate together after prayer, devoted themselves to charity and benevolence, forbade the expression of anger, studied the books of the elders, preserved secrets, and were very mindful of the names of the angels kept in their sacred writings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes

So, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls must mean that God wants the mankind to review creeds and principles of the Essenes. It is because holy miracles never occur without reasons, purposes or intents of God.

The Dead Sea Scrolls:

MaterialPapyrus, parchment and bronze

WritingHebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Nabataean-Aramaic

CreatedEst. 408 BCE to 318 CE

Discovered1946/7–1956

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls

http://www.slideserve.com/overton/map-of-herodian-palestine

**** **** ****Luk 1:13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.Luk 1:14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.

Now that the US looks like entering an era of foolish presidents with coming inauguration of Donald Trump, we had better check how incidents proceeded in the Roman Empire with those foolish emperors.

The two emperors who came just after Hadrian were different from any that had gone before. They were scholars and wise men, and liked the quiet of their libraries much better than the noise of armies and battles, or the traveling of which Hadrian had been so fond. But they both governed with the single purpose of making the people under their rule as happy as possible; so when it became necessary to make war to defend the empire, they did not hesitate to give up their own desires and march at the head of their armies. This became more and more necessary during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the second of these two emperors; and finally he met his death on the bank of the river Danube, fighting against the Germans who dwelt along that stream.

With the death of this great and good emperor, the "golden age" of the empire came to an end. From now on the barbarians pressed more closely on the empire, and it became more difficult to defend it against their attacks. The Romans and the Italians had lost the old bravery and skill in fighting, which had enabled them to conquer the whole world; while the barbarians had learned much about war from their long struggles with Rome. Besides this, the government now fell once more into unworthy hands. Ignorant soldiers gave the rule to men who were not fit for it; and once the position of emperor was even put up at auction and sold to the highest bidder.

So a hundred years of war and bloodshed followed. This did not cease, until at last a strong ruler named Diocletian got the power, and divided the empire into an eastern and western half, each with its own ruler, so that the people might be better defended from the barbarians, and better governed in their own countries. Many other changes were made by Diocletian; then when his work was finished, he resigned his power and spent the rest of his days in quiet, far from the struggles of war and politics.

Soon after Diocletian had resigned his power, a new emperor arose who once more united the rule over both the eastern and western halves of the empire. His name was Constantine, and he is called "the Great." He did two things which were very important. In the first place, he was the first emperor to become a Christian himself, and to allow the Christians to practice their religion openly. In the second place, he moved the capital of the Roman empire to the shores of the Black Sea, and there built a, new city which was called from his name, "Constantinople," or "the city of Constantine." Sometime after the death of Constantine the empire was again divided into an eastern and a western part; and this time the division was a lasting one. After that there was an empire of the East, with its capital at Constantinople; and an empire of the West, with its capital at Rome.

Meanwhile, the barbarians, especially the Germans, had been growing more and more troublesome. Great hordes of them at last broke through the line of forts along the Rhine and the Danube, and wandered up and down the lands of the empire, plundering and destroying for many years. Battle after battle was fought with them, and sometimes the Germans were the victors, and sometimes the Romans were; but the armies of the emperors were never again strong enough to drive the Germans out of the Roman lands.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

No schools in the world teach children and students that the aim of life is to earn money, become rich, and satisfy their desire as much as possible.

No schools in the world teach children and students that the aim of life is to earn money, become rich, and satisfy their desire by any means to the extent that they are not legally punished.

But, rather, educations is to teach children and students who would, in the case of receiving no education, pursue their desire by any means as much as possible even if they have to take legal risks that they should observe laws and rules, contribute to maintenance and development of civilization and culture, and avoid violence and other crimes that would harm the sound framework of the society where so many people are living their precious lives.

This is a basic concept of education: men can be as bad as possible without education and they will surely harm and destroy society and civilization eventually.

However, today's economy is based on a different concept. If consumers stopped buying products and services companies provide and manufacture, business should be stopped and employees should be dismissed. So, for a majority of members of the society to earn money, companies must have consumers buy their goods and services. The more consumers buy, the more companies and employees get money. And, the easiest way to increase consumption is to arouse and cause desire in consumers. It means that companies try to make consumers pursue their desire and want products and services they provide. However, desire makes human being corrupt, rotten, and evil. Put simply, commercialism makes the society corrupt, rotten, and evil.

This commercialism is in the extension of capitalism that emerged after the Industrial Revolution that started around 1800 in the UK and Europe. And, with advancement of science and technology and social systems, the history now enters the era of commercialism.

Today, a majority of Western nations, developing countries, and Muslims put the highest priority in money. To get money, ordinary people have to work in companies. And for companies to make profits and pay salaries and dividends, they have to sell more goods and services to consumers. To make consumers buy more goods and services, businesses are arousing their lusts and desires. However, lusts and desires make people indecent, lousy, mean, rotten, corrupt, and evil.

Of course, before this era of commercialism, the era of capitalism and the era of the Industrial Revolution, there had been many social factors and cultural elements that demoralized people. However, the scale and intensity of this commercialism leveraging advanced technologies have never been experienced by peoples in the world. At every corner in the world, people are exposed brain-washing, indecent commercial videos, sounds, pictures, and works through TVs, smartphones, the Internet, etc. This is a situation that has never been experienced by the mankind.

Put simply, the mankind might be destroyed by their own inflated desires, unless this commercialism is controlled.

The danger of today's economic system and commercialism must be taught in schools in addition to in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other temples.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States

This curve also indicates expansion of commercialism and the degree of resultant corruption of the society.

**** **** ****Luk 1:9 According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.Luk 1:10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.Luk 1:11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

Monday, January 09, 2017

The earth is rotating around its axis running from the north pole to the south pole, specifically at a rate of 500 meters (about half a mile) per second on the surface on the equator.

The earth is rotating around the sun at a rate of 30 km (about 20 miles) per second. However, human beings had not realized it for three million years since they had been established as a species till a few centuries ago.

Even today, you cannot feel the speeds of the earth's self rotation and revolution around the sun, though these movements are real.

There are other things men cannot realize and sense, though they are essential for existence of human beings. For example, most of us cannot realize existence of God.

Maybe the power of God is working around us like earth's spin on its axis and revolution around the sun that we cannot conceive as real.

So, we sometimes wonder why God would not help us and other poor people suffering from worldly tragedies, but we might not have ability to realize how God is saving and helping us and other poor people.

Anyway, God is protecting us and the earth by ensuring stable movements of the earth and the solar system. Only for this reason, we had better praise and thank God.

Man travels nearly 67,000 miles per hour in yearly orbit around the Sun. But, man’s lifetime or lifespan is determined by alternating periods of Day and Night caused by Earth’s rotational spin.https://bhavanajagat.com/2016/05/03/love-defined-as-fundamental-force/

**** **** ****Mat 1:9 And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias;Mat 1:10 And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;Mat 1:11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon: